This invention concerns a device, such as a shell or the like, containing at least a first charge unit and a second charge unit arranged in series one after the other and connected to each other by means of a joint. These charge units contain one RSV i.e. shaped charge each and are designed to be detonated one after the other with a time separation between the detonations.
The number of RSV or shaped charges contained in a shell can be two or more. Versions with two RSV charges are called tandem RSV charges, while versions with three RSV charges are called triple RSV charges. A collective name for versions with more than one RSV charge is multi RSV charges.
A shell in accordance with the above paragraph is already known by, for example, DE publication 24 60 303. In this document some tandem RSV designs are described. In particular it mentions the undesirable effect that a detonating charge can have upon undetonated charges.
One problem concerning the design of RSV charges that are to detonate at different times is, as already mentioned, the effect that a detonating charge has upon the undetonated charges. Normally the structure that lies between the charges is designed to be so strong that it can support the mass in front of it during the launching stage. Designs with such a strong structure have, however, the disadvantage that they act as excellent shock wave transmitters. A shock wave generated by the detonation of a first charge is therefore transmitted almost undamped to subsequent charges. This in turn can cause interference to the RSV beams received by a subsequent charge or even cause its ignition system to be damaged.